/lit/ - Literature

Well anon he would probably start by killing himself

>>9406910
He was arguably his own biggest detractor post IJ and in the 00s up to his suicide.

>>9406914
>>9406964
Came here to post these, dude was hyper-sensitive to criticism.

>>9406910
I took a creative nonfiction course with David Wallace at Ponoma back in '94. We weren't allowed to show anyone our essays outside of the class for some reason. He seemed naturally intelligent, didnt need to look at any notes or textbooks or prepare for any lectures, he just knew his stuff and was super casual.

I saw him talking to a girl on campus one day. He uncharacteristically wore a Fila sweatsuit, the kind that looks like it's made from the same material as parachutes, and trainer sneakers with a matching bandana. That was his pussy hunt outfit apparently. Several times a week, same outfit, I'd see him hitting on women in it. I once saw him wearing it while carrying an identical outfit from the dry cleaners, he had like 4 sets of same Fila sweatsuit.

I asked him about it in class and he said we aren't allowed to discuss anything unrelated to class while inside class, the same way we can't show anyone outside of class our essays. A student called out "but Dostoevsky isn't in this class and last week you talked about replicating his black tea obsession to test its affects on your own writing". Wallace stared blankly at the student with dead eyes for 30 seconds in dead silence then said "you just got knocked down a full letter grade. Any other smart asses? Didn't think so." and pushed up his glasses with his index finger.

I remember telling myself this guy will either be super successful or kill himself.

>>9406914
came to post this

>>9407771
Is this pasta?

I want to believe.jpg

>>9408395
He was a raging narcissist according to those who put up with him. Jonathan Frazen included.

I read somewhere that he cried for hours over a bad review of The Broom of the System. Dude couldn't stand criticism.

But that what happens when you confuse an academic ass-kisser for a writer.

>>9408395
I've seen it a couple of times before.

>>9408395
Yes

>>9407771
>Ponoma
makes it even funnier desu

I can't tell if this is extremely stupid and the writer of the article a horrible reader, or if there is actually a lot of ugly truth within it. Regardless it is extremely funny and autistic and worth reading.

http://exiledonline.com/david-foster-wallace-portrait-of-an-infinitely-limited-mind/

>>9410182
>So far, it’s worked well. Most David Foster Wallace fans have a self-mortifying attitude that goes something like this: “I don’t feel I’m even close to understanding Infinite Jest, but I don’t want to think that’s deliberate. Wallace always seemed like such a warm, down-to-earth person. No, not arrogant at all. He had long hair. He wore T-shirts, for Christ’s sake! Better to think he was struggling to communicate something, something deeply felt, about the limits of language. How he really wanted to connect with other people but couldn’t. Just think of him in front of the word processor, caged in his own affectedness like John McCain in the Hanoi Hilton. Imagine him for a moment, tortured by the Viet Cong of whitebread smugness! Really imagine! It’s MY fault I haven’t gotten it, not his.”

This is one fucking immense strawman

and immediately followed by
>This is where DFW’s suicide has really paid off – without a corpse, it’s harder to convince your audience that insincerity qualifies you for victim status, no matter how much you “struggle” with it.

Nah, I'll pass

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KATfU2wZ6o

I wonder how he would respond

>>9410246
hes being ironic, it isnt a serious essay, of course hes writing a "Strawman", its an angry forum post

>>9410281
So this is the irony DFW warned us about....

>>9410182
>That’s all Infinite Jest boils down to. An anti-intellectual (yet amazingly pretentious) Calvinist cautionary tale that makes the same death threats about thinking that Requiem for a Dream made about drugs – “Brains: Just Say No!” Plus a few voyeuristic scenes of depraved poor people in a rehab centre. Bum fights, in other words. Cleverish ones. Hobo torture porn for postgraduate smirkers.


lmao 421

>>9410271
>making a video of yourself talking to yourself about being triggered by an author who triggers seemingly everyone nowadays... while wearing goddamn crocs.

Seriously why does DFW trigger so many people?

>>9410390
Maybe because he criticizes being entertained constantly, and some other American ways of living in general. Idk.
and 'cause he was a FUCKING WHITE MALE